Author: (Linnaeus, 1758)
Dasyatis pastinaca (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Dasyatis pastinaca (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout obtuse, little produced; disc rhomboid, front margins more or less straight, hind margins convex; tail 1.3-1.5 times length of disc, with relatively short and deep membranous folds on top and below (originating at level of spine). Distance between fifth gill-slits half or less than their distance from mouth; floor of mouth with 5 bulbose papillae. Upper surfaces without large tubercles or bucklers in larger specimens, but with large narrow-based thorns on top of tail. Colour: upper surfaces greyish, olive or brown; underside white with a wide greyishbrown to blackish margin. Size: to 60 cm disc width, usually 45 cm.
Habitat: benthic over sandy and muddy bottoms, from shallow water to about 200 m; locally common. Food: bottom-living invertebrates and fishes. Reproduction: ovoviviparous; gestation period about 4 months, with 47 young produced.
Distribution: Atlantic coasts from Madeira and Morocco northward to British Isles, southern Norway and to western part of Baltic (rare); also, whole of Mediterranean (most common on eastern and southern coasts) and Black Sea. Elsewhere, the Canaries and southward to South Africa.
Complementary iconography. Ehrenbaum, 1934: pl. 58 | Muus and Dahlström, 1965: 58, fig. 24.
Eggs, embryonic and young stages. Lo Bianco, 1909: 688-689.